


Worth It

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: Partners [46]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Established Relationship, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Relationship Discussions, Sexual Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-02 00:47:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14533038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: “Nothing about your Uncle Steve has been easy since the day I met him," he said lightly. "By that point, I’d stopped being surprised.”He could feel Grace's smile. “But he was worth it, though?”Danny talks about being bisexual.





	Worth It

**Author's Note:**

> At this point I don't think I'm even writing these things anymore. They just sort of... happen.
> 
> Also, please don't see this as any kind of comment on being bisexual. I'm demi, and wildly unqualified to make any sort of statement on any other sexual identity. I just wanted to let Danny verbalize some of what I feel was his very personal journey.

Steve and Kono had gone surfing at an unholy hour, which meant that Danny and the kids had the house to themselves for the morning.

Grace was in her room, supposedly writing a biology paper but probably talking to either Will or her friends, and Brandon was next to him on the couch coloring the adventures of the Paw Patrol. Danny had started out the morning watching the welterweight match he'd DVR'd off of ESPN the night before, but the first time Brandon flinched he'd immediately changed it to SportsCenter. Brandon didn't say anything about it, but he did scoot closer and lean into Danny's side before he went back to coloring.

The only interruption came when Grace suddenly appeared in the living room, standing in front of the TV. "I need to talk to you," she announced firmly. "In the kitchen."

Danny muted the TV. "About what?"

She hesitated, looking over at Brandon. "About things a 4-year-old shouldn't have to worry about."

Brandon's brow lowered. "Is it something bad?"

Grace shook her head, expression softening as she pressed a kiss against his hair. "No, Tracker. Just grown-up things."

From a parental perspective, that also wasn't a terribly good thing to hear from your 15-year-old daughter. Still, he'd just worry until he knew, so he ruffled Brandon's hair as he stood up. "Keep the couch warm for me, Tracker," he said.

Brandon nodded, returning to his coloring. "Come back soon."

Danny followed Grace back into the kitchen, noting that she was bursting to get something out. When she turned around to face him, she looked almost angry. “My biology teacher says bisexuality isn’t a real thing in humans.” 

Not the conversation he'd been expecting, but better than several possible options. “Then your teacher is an idiot.” 

Grace's shoulders immediately relaxed in relief. “That’s what I told her.” She must have caught something in his expression, because she immediately gave him an exasperated look. “I didn’t actually call her an ‘idiot.’ I just told her how wrong she was.” Her expression darkened with remembered anger. “She said you must have been secretly gay all your life and didn’t realize it until now.” 

Clearly, Danny was going to have to have a talk with this teacher, the kind that involved a lot of shouting and possibly threats to the administration. “Well, I can promise you I definitely wasn’t gay, secretly or not-so-secretly. Your mother and I had plenty of problems, but that really wasn’t one of them.” 

She rolled her eyes at him. “I wasn’t worried. You didn’t even know you _liked_ guys until Uncle Steve.” Then she hesitated again. “You do like guys, though, right? Not just Uncle Steve?”

Danny went still, less prepared for this conversational turn than he had been the last one. “Why do you want to know?” A thought hit him. “Do you think you might be….” Not that he'd mind at all — hell, talk about hypocritical — but that would ratchet up the discussion about nine levels on the parental seriousness scale. He had to be ready for it.

Grace shook her head. “I wondered for a little while, because you didn’t seem to know, but so far I think I’m probably straight. And I’m happy with Will, so even if I’m not I don’t need to worry about it.” Then she leaned back against the counter, looking thoughtful. “I just… what was it about Uncle Steve that made you figure it out?”

Honestly, he would rather talk Grace through _her_ coming out than have this conversation. “I…” He fumbled around for the right words, then let out a breath. “Geez, Monkey, why can’t you ever ask me the easy questions?”

She grinned at him. “I promise if I’m ever unlucky enough to get business homework, I’ll let you help me with that, too.” 

Danny's own lips curved. “Smartass.” It eased the pressure he'd felt, made it easier to fumble along assembling the explanation in real time. “I think, looking back, that I’ve sort of… looked at guys since I was a teenager, the same way I’ve always looked at girls. But in my neighborhood, it just… wouldn’t have worked to actually do something about it.” He shuddered a little, just thinking about it. “I would have gotten into a lot more fights, for one thing, and just…." He shook his head. "It would have made my life _so_ much harder.” 

Grace's face settled into her "I will take on all the injustices of the world" look. “So you had to hide it.”

Danny leaned back against the counter, remembering. “I guess I kind of hid it from myself, because 14-year-old me looked at the possibility and realized how much of a disaster that would be." Not that any of this had occurred to him at the time, of course, but he'd done a lot of soul searching around the same time he'd had his big Google adventure in "properly defining your sexuality." "So I told myself I was sizing up potential rivals, or appreciating them the same way I would a classic car. After awhile, I sort of forgot I was doing it, because I’d already slotted it into a nice, safe explanation in my head.”

Now she looked worried. “Do you feel like you missed out on anything?”

The "you've got to be kidding me" look was instinctive. “With the assholes I grew up with? No.” He shuddered a little again, but this time it was for an entirely different reason. “I could have been the gayest kid in the world, and not a single one would have been worth getting n—" he caught himself mid-word "—worth my time.” 

She rolled her eyes again. “I know about sex, Danno.”

He smiled a little. “Be kind to an old man and let me pretend you don’t.”

Her expression softened. “So Uncle Steve made you remember?”

Danny's chest clenched. “Uncle Steve….” He let out a breath. “He made it something I couldn’t ignore anymore.”

“Why not?”

The smile snuck back, widening helplessly. “Because I was an idiot and fell in love with him. If it’s just physical, it’s… easy. You can get it anywhere.” His brow lowered as he focused on his daughter. “Though you shouldn’t. It’s extremely emotionally unhealthy.” 

She waved that off with an exasperated noise. “Back to Uncle Steve.” 

He rubbed a hand across his chest, remembering. “I didn’t know that’s what it was at first, both because he was a guy and because it had been a hell of a long time since I’d fallen in love. But the part of me that had decided that looking at guys was too big of a problem to deal with knew, and was sort of forced to re-address the issue." Kissing Steve in the middle of an undercover op had seemed like an amazingly stupid idea on the surface, but looking back it was exactly the sort of ambush his subconscious would come up with. "After that… a lot of things made a lot more sense.”

She moved toward him, sliding her arms him and leaning her head against his shoulder. “Were you mad when you realized you couldn’t do the easy thing anymore?”

It had been a relief, more than anything, but he wasn't ready to talk about that now. “Nothing about your Uncle Steve has been easy since the day I met him," he said lightly. "By that point, I’d stopped being surprised.” 

He could feel Grace's smile. “But he was worth it, though?”

He smiled again. “Yeah.” He'd fight anyone for Steve. Glaring the occasional asshole into submission was nothing. “He was the only person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. And that would have been a hell of a lot more complicated for someone who was still telling himself he was 100 percent straight.” 

In the end, the choice had been simpler, and more worth it, than his 14-year-old self could have ever possibly imagined.

“I won’t tell Ms. Aldred any of this,” Grace said finally, sounding thoughtful. “She wouldn’t understand, and then I’d just have to get mad at her all over again.”

Danny smoothed a hand over her hair. “She says anything else to you, tell her your bisexual father is going to show up and make her regret ever being born.”

He could hear the grin in her voice. “I’m going to get into _so_ much trouble if I actually tell her that.” 

Danny grinned as well. “Not with me you wouldn't.” 

Soon, they heard a small voice from the living room. "You guys should come back soon."

Smiling at each other, they headed back into the living room. "We're coming, Tracker."

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my [original fiction,](https://jennifferwardell.wixsite.com/mybooks) my [blog,](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


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